Game Recap: ONE…MORE…YARD… That’s all Hutchinson needed in their last game of the 2015 season. Stopped on the 1 yard line as time expired on the game and the season. A back and forth game, highlighted by Big Plays on the Tiger Offensive side saw Hutchinson go on an 8 minute drive to end the game only to be stopped on the games final play.

Current Record: 0-0 SEASON OPENER!

This Week’s Opponent: Becker (0-0)

About the Opponent: The Bulldogs have won the last two State Championships, last year was another undefeated season for Coach Dwight Lundeen’s boys. The Bulldogs always seem to have quality teams year in and year out, but this one starts for Becker with more question marks than others. The Bulldogs suffered MASSIVE Graduation, bringing back only 6 or 7 starters out of their 22 from last year.

Key Hutch Players: Offensive Line. Out of Beckers 6 or 7 returners, 5 of them are at Defensive Line and Linebacker. Becker’s defense was quite stout last year and no doubt will lean on those returning players heavily. If Hutch wants to win, they have to be able to run the ball. And the way you run the ball is by going through Becker’s top returning players. Gonna have to be sharp week one in the trenches!

Games Storylines:

Quarterbacks. You may see 5 of them. No, we’re serious. Becker lost a 2 time All State QB to Graduation, and they’ll be rotating two players to see which one of them can replace him. For Hutchinson, they also lost their QB to Graduation and 3 players are still currently vieing for time on the field. Which one steps up? Which one can lead their team to victory?

Becker’s Inexperience. In one newspaper article we read about Becker, it stated they were bringing back just 1 starter on offense. 1, that’s it. That means a lot of new players on the field. (Granted, Becker was in a lot of blowouts last year, so more players probably saw time in the 2nd half of games.) But…Becker graduated their top 5 Rushers, and their top 6 receivers. Can Hutchinson’s Defense…which brings back a number of players from last year…confuse them or otherwise expose the inexperience?

Early in the season usually you see a few more mistakes. Which team will have more of them? Turnovers? Penalties? Missed Assignments?

Quick Hit Keys…Hutch’s offensive returning players need to step up, Nelson, Petersen, etc…Can the DB’s step up against a historically very good passing team? Would help to get great run defense as well.

A useless/interesting fact…Becker Head Coach Dwight Lundeen starts his 47th season Thursday. He’s the only coach that Becker has ever had for Football. With Lundeen and Hutchinson Coach Andy Rostberg on the other sideline. Thursday’s game pits the two teams that won the last 4 State Championships against each other. Lundeen has 342 career wins to Andy’s 154. But Rostberg’s winning percentage is almost 10 points higher 79.8% to 70.1%